Dr. Zachary
Dr. Zachary is a villainous character from Sonic the Comic and a fierce adversary of Knuckles the Echidna. He is one of only three living Echidnas on Mobius, the rest of his race having vanished long ago due to unknown circumstances. Once fully flesh and blood, he had to undergo cybernetic augmentation after falling from the Floating Island following his first battle with Knuckles. History Homecoming When he first returned to the Floating Island, he claimed he was being hunted by a dangerous robot (in actuality an Echidna Guardian Robot he had reprogrammed). The surprised Knuckles was tricked into taking him to the Emerald Chamber. Zachary then had the robot invade the Chamber and destroy the Master Emerald, absorbing its Chaos Energy into itself. He then boarded the super-charged robot and set off to devastate Mobius and get an unknown revenge on the other Echidnas, leaving the Floating Island to crash. However, Knuckles caught him before he could escape and decapitated Zachary's robot. However, before Knuckles could take him prisoner, an inopportune quake threw Zachary from the island, sending him plummeting towards Mobius. While airborne, Zachary was able to use the robot's body to soften his landing, but the impact left him horribly injured. He would have died if not found by a Badnik patrol. Alliance with Robotnik In order to save Zachary's life, Dr. Robotnik used his own robotics expertise to rebuild the crippled Echidna. Having originally believed that Knuckles was the last of his race, he was eager to learn all he could about them. However, Zachary offered something that Robotnik cared about more: vengeance. During his time on the Floating Island, Zachary had seen that the Mushroom Hill Zone had been populated by refugees from Mobius' Emerald Hill Zone who had been in hiding there ever since Robotnik's Death Egg had been destroyed. Zachary told Robotnik where the Emerald Hill folk were located and the two villains travelled to the Floating Island together, finding that Knuckles was gone (having been forced to travel across Mobius due to extenuating circumstances) and the Emerald Hill folk were defenceless. Zachary took control of the Floating Island's Guardian robots using modern software provided by Robotnik and had the robots round up all of the Emerald Hill folk. Knuckles would return to the island just as Zachary finished his work and was captured as well. Zachary and Robotnik took Knuckles to their base on the island where Knuckles was horrified to see that the Emerald Hill folk had all been connected to Robotnik's latest invention: a computer designed to harness living brains for its functions. The bio-computer had not yet been activated and Knuckles tried to stop the mad scientists from carrying out their plan, but the Guardians were too strong for him to overcome. Fortunately, salvation came when the Black Asteroid - teleported to Mobius from the Special Zone by the Omni-Viewer - exploded violently, releasing an electromagnetic pulse that enveloped the entire planet. The pulse caused all electronic machinery to shut down, disabling the bio-computer and effectively wiping out Robotnik's global empire in one fell swoop. Zachary was somehow unaffected by the EMP and fought against Knuckles one-on-one. The two Echidnas' fighting was interrupted by the sudden arrival of Sonic the Hedgehog, who knocked out Zachary and sent him hurtling into a fissure. Due to StC's cancellation, Dr. Zachary's fate was left uncertain until the creation of the webcomic Sonic the Comic Online. Sonic the Comic Online In Sonic the Comic Online, Zachary resurfaced and attempted to take control of Super Sonic. When that failed, he assembled a gang of supervillains called the Syndicate and brought to life a dormant Shadow the Hedgehog, with the intent of using the Chaos Emeralds to ignite all of Mobius' residual Chaos energy and literally blow up the planet. The plan failed and Zachary's mysterious ally Vichama betrayed him; Knuckles was able to capture him and took him to the Floating Island for questioning. This did not go well, with Zachary refusing to answer questions and instead taunting Knuckles over the annihilation of the Special Zone. After Vichama's rampage and subsequent defeat, Knuckles was dead intent on getting some answers from his aged enemy. Returning to Zachary's cell, the guardian claimed he was running out of secrets to taunt him with. After yet another useless session Knuckles turned to leave when the doctor taunted him about his people abandoning him. In anger, the guardian smashed open the cell wall only to have Zachary blast him away. Activating a hidden command sequence in the present Guardian Robot, Zachary leapt into the control compartment and made his way out, attacking Porker Lewis, stealing the Master Emerald and kidnapping Tikal. He then tormented the guardian once he arrived with an impossible choice: either he would destroy the Master Emerald and send the island plummeting down from the sky, or he would kill Tikal, the only friendly member of his race. Before the dreaded doctor could go through with either of his sinister suggestions, Tikal used a voice command to eject the albino out of the robot. Left with little to defend himself with as Knuckles charged him, Zachary raised his arm cannon at the agile guardian. Forced to the ground by his archenemy, his arm cannon was kept in a tight grip by Knuckles who proceeded to beat him. Disconnecting his arm and engaging a hidden jetpack, Zachary took off, throwing taunts over his shoulder as he flew, unknowing that this had all been a ruse by Knuckles and his friends to find out more about the fate of the Echidna race. A Guardian Robot modification had now implanted a scanner in Zachary`s bionic eye to monitor his movement. Personality At first glance, Dr. Zachary seems like a wisened, benevolent individual. This is not the case at all; he is indeed intelligent, but he is crafty, manipulative and utterly sociopathic. Several times he has tried to destroy the planet Mobius for reasons that still remain vague, though he seems to harbour some sort of grudge against the ancient Echidnas and takes it out on Knuckles since he is the only Echidna left besides himself and Tikal. Abilities Before Robotnik reconstructed him, Zachary relied solely on his intellect and craftiness. He possesses intimate knowledge about the Floating Island's defences and has managed to bypass and/or seize control of them in the past. The cybernetics provided by Robotnik allow Zachary to survive and have enhanced his strength to a degree. His bionic eye has greater acuity than his remaining natural eye and his mechanical arm ends in an energy cannon with deadly firepower. He also has a jetpack hidden amongst his cybernetic dreadlocks (seen only in StC-O) that allows him to fly. It is unknown if Robotnik installed the jetpack or Zachary devised it himself later on. Category:Non-Robots Category:Cyborgs Category:Comic Book Cyborgs Category:Comic Book Characters Category:Sonic the Hedgehog Category:Sonic the Comic Category:Scientists Category:Cyborg Animals